Here are the key figures on electricity consumption and the carbon footprint of the air conditioning.
What total electricity consumption?
According to ADEME’s assessment, in 2020 (last figures available), the consumption Total air conditioning systems in France amounted to 15.5 terawatt hours (TWh), including 4.9 TWh in the residential. Or a minimal part of the country’s gross electricity consumption, which was 449 TWh, noted by the high -voltage line manager.
“Few housing is air conditioned”, summarizes Brice Tréméac, director of the cold and the energy and thermal systems (Lafset) within the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM).
But ADEME estimates that on the horizon of 2050, electricity consumption due to air conditioning in France could vary between 6 TWh (in a sobriety approach) and 27 TWh if the rate of equipment is effortlessly generalized sobriety.
What individual consumption?
Electricity consumption depends on power Devices, but a mobile air conditioner can consume 2.5 times more electricity than a fixed model, according to ADEME.
Leave a fan with a power of 50 watts (W) lit during a nuit Eight hours consumes 400 WH, of the order of 0.08 euros (at the price of 0.20 euros per kWh of the “blue price” of EDF as an option “base” in force in 2025).
A 1,500 W air conditioner will consume 12 kWh and will cost for eight hours 2.40 euros, at the same price.
What carbon footprint?
By turning 48 hours to face a heat wave, an air conditioner will generate the equivalent of 2.3 kg of Co₂ because of its electricity consumption, if we take the imprint carbone Average of French electricity, largely decarbonized, especially because it is for more than two -thirds of nuclear origin (32 grams of CO₂ equivalent by KWH, according to RTE data of 2023).
What is it compared with?
A round trip by car in Normandie From Paris in search of freshness, 86.8 kg is equivalent, according to the carbon emission calculator on a route of Ademe.
A round trip Paris-Oslo generates 296 kg of equivalent, according to the gas emission calculator l’aviation put online by the Ministry of Transport.
This comparison is imperfect Because the climatic imprint of air conditioners is mainly due to the manufacture and leaks of their refrigerants, powerful greenhouse gases, emissions more than twice as important than those linked to electricity consumption, according to ADEME.
At the country level, the air conditioning is thus responsible for around 1 % of the total of France’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Other side effects
In addition, notes Brice Tréméac, “by air conditioning the interior, we will go warm The outside air. And in a dense city like Paris, it can increase the temperature by a few degrees two meters from the ground. “
If the whole Paris region used air conditioning during a heat wave, the temperature in the streets would increase From 2.4 ° C, according to a study by CNRS, Météo-France, the Paris-Tech Ponts School and Cired in 2020.
“A poorly chosen or poorly installed air conditioning will be less PERFORMANCES And will increase electricity consumption “as well as the risks of pollution” in the broad sense “, summarizes Brice Tréméac.
Hence the importance of favoring, as advocated by Ademe, the most economical In energy, labeled A +++, rather than the least economical (A). Or not activate air conditioning as long as the interior temperature remains below 26 ° C.
With AFP.
